Is there a cheap, trustworthy car electrician who knows E30s

[Dr Firefly]

Looking for someone in Yorkshire or Nottinghamshire. Need my instrument cluster sorting - driving me mad. And wouldn't mind my radio wiring in properly but that's another story - can live with that for the moment.

[fuzzy]

cheap AND trustworthy? youve got no chance mate

[Dr Firefly]

Ok then cheap OR trustworthy. Then I can decide which to pick! Better than going to a dealership - extortionate AND shite

[Brianmoooore]

Only person who is both cheap and trustworthy and local is yourself,mate.
The E30 electrical knowledge you can find on here!
What's the exact problems?

[Dr Firefly]

1. I think the cable from the speedo sensor is knackered, as I've soldered it once as a bodge job, and though it works most of the time, it sometimes cuts out, but only when the car's hot

2. The fuel gauge and temp gauge just wander aimlessly.

3. The rev counter works when the car's been sat in really hot sunlight for about 2 hours. And the MPG meter sometimes works at the same time, but not always

4. The service lights are on yellow, and they occasionally go over to red, and then back again. They're impossible to reset - I've had a BMW garage try

So I don't really know where to start. All the telltales and the check system work fine. Is the first port of call a new SI board and then see what's still working? I'd just like working dials.

Cheers, Ian

[Brianmoooore]

1. I think the cable from the speedo sensor is knackered, as I've soldered it once as a bodge job, and though it works most of the time, it sometimes cuts out, but only when the car's hot

2. The fuel gauge and temp gauge just wander aimlessly.

3. The rev counter works when the car's been sat in really hot sunlight for about 2 hours. And the MPG meter sometimes works at the same time, but not always

4. The service lights are on yellow, and they occasionally go over to red, and then back again. They're impossible to reset - I've had a BMW garage try

So I don't really know where to start. All the telltales and the check system work fine. Is the first port of call a new SI board and then see what's still working? I'd just like working dials.

Cheers, Ian

1/ Replace (not repair) the last 12" of the cable to the diff, and make sure the connector on the diff is clean.
2/ Tighten the two small nuts on the back of the cluster
3/ Replace SI board, or at least the batteries in the SI board.
4/ See three.

It would be simpler if you could borrow a known good cluster from someone and try it in your car to confirm which faults are cluster related, as the speedo fault could be the cluster also.

[Dr Firefly]

Ok I'll do the SI board first, see which problems are fixed, then assume that the cluster's good and work from there.

Thanks a lot, (and thanks too for the help in the thread where I was asking about the bushes in the selector linkage for the gearbox). Very useful

Ian

[Dr Firefly]

Ok,
I've ordered some batteries off Ebay that claim to fit the board. So I'll tell you all how it goes when I've replaced them. Might be useful for other people's reference as it seems to be a common problem.

Ian